What else to use along with ESS for sure?

Best is to use ESET Smart Security's firewall in Interactive mode so that you can monitor which programs want to *go out* , where exactly they want to connect to , ports , etc and you can have full control .

ESET Smart Security is all-in-one suit , more or less it includes everything - antivirus , antispyware , firewall and anti-spam protections.

In addition to ESET products , I also use Microsoft's Windows Defender . It works great with most AVs , including ESET NOD32 and ESET Smart Security . However , you don't necessary need to use anything else - just what you find needed.

All 3 combine powers , work together . Anti-spam can reduce not only ads but potentially dangerous emails that look like spam . Antimalware uses patters and different heuristic techniques (emulation , generic signatures , etc - more here , pages 1 to 5) . Firewall is great - in Interactive mode it allows users to create their own rules and have control over the situation about what is coming in and what goes out , where it goes or comes from , what ports shall be used , what program is going to perform the action , etc)

All 3 combine powers , work together . Anti-spam can reduce not only ads but potentially dangerous emails that look like spam . Antimalware uses patters and different heuristic techniques (emulation , generic signatures , etc - more here , pages 1 to 5) . Firewall is great - in Interactive mode it allows users to create their own rules and have control over the situation about what is coming in and what goes out , where it goes or comes from , what ports shall be used , what program is going to perform the action , etc)

All 3 combined give very high protection rate

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The MALWARE/SPYWARE detection relies only on those methods. I was not talking about other components. They're using signatures and heuristics only. That's an outdated approach nowadays IMO.

The MALWARE/SPYWARE detection relies only on those methods. I was not talking about other components. They're using signatures and heuristics only. That's an outdated approach nowadays IMO.

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Relatively outdated techniques but all AV products (malware/spyware detection) use them to find threats . Other modules (behavious analysis , firewalls) also help protect the machine and detect new threats

Relatively outdated techniques but all AV products (malware/spyware detection) use them to find threats . Other modules (behavious analysis , firewalls) also help protect the machine and detect new threats

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I'm just saying that the approach Signature+Heuristic only is outdated. I don't say that the techniques themselves are outdated. It's easy to bypass signatures and heuristics. Just hex editing and packing. Even a script kiddie can do that. While hex editing and packing won't be able to bypass behaviour blocking/HIPS functions easily. A "modern" approach is Signature+Heuristic+Behaviour Blocking/HIPS or just Signature + Behaviour blokcin/HIPS is the Behaviour blokcin/HIPS module is very strong.